Public domain, where there is life after copyright; CBS News, Sunday Morning, April 14, 2024

Lee Cowan , CBS News, Sunday Morning; Public domain, where there is life after copyright

"Jenkins said, "The public domain doesn't represent the death of copyright. It's just the second part of copyright's life cycle."

The concept of putting an expiration date on intellectual property was something the founding fathers actually put in the U.S. Constitution, "...to promote the progress of science and the useful arts." They left it to Congress, however, to decide just how long copyright terms should last...

Duke University's Jennifer Jenkins said, "Copyright gives rights to creators and their descendants that provide incentives to create. But the public domain really is the soil for future creativity."

There are surely more copyright clashes ahead. Characters like Bugs Bunny, Superman and Batman will all find themselves out of copyright protection soon enough.

Even Luke Skywalker will eventually find himself in the public domain, too, sometime around 2073. That sure seems like a galaxy far, far way."

Aretha Franklin’s Estate: Why Copyrights Require Estate Planning.; Forbes, July 13, 2023

Matthew Erskine, Forbes; Aretha Franklin’s Estate: Why Copyrights Require Estate Planning.

"The news of the recent resolution of the Aretha Franklin estate is a high profile, and expensive, lesson in how not to manage copyrights in an estate. At least there was what the Court found to be her will, unlike the six yearlong court fight that resolved last year in the Prince estate. You may think that this is only an issue for celebrities, but, with the ease of producing, generating, and creating materials, such as blog posts, YouTube videos, music, art, photographs or eBooks, more and more people are now owners of copyrights. These copyrights should be considered assets and an integral part of the client’s estate. Such planning includes the management and distribution of copyright assets after the copyright owner passes away. Proper estate planning can ensure the protection and transfer of copyright ownership, as well as provide for the financial well-being of heirs and beneficiaries.

Here are some important considerations for estate planning related to copyrights:"

Sonny Bono’s Widow Strikes Back in Cher Copyright Fight; Billboard, December 9, 2021

Bill Donahue, Billboard; Sonny Bono’s Widow Strikes Back in Cher Copyright Fight

"Cher’s legal battle with Sonny Bono’s widow is heating up, with Mary Bono arguing that the legendary singer should not be allowed to claim that her divorce agreement trumps important provisions of federal copyright law.

Cher sued Mary Bono last month, seeking to block her from taking control of Sonny’s music. The case is one of several closely-watched music lawsuits over copyright law’s “termination right” — a provision that allows creators or their heirs to win back control of rights they signed away decades prior."

‘Rhapsody in Blue’ (1924) just reached the public domain, showing the insanity of U.S. copyright law; The Los Angeles Times, January 4, 2020

Michael Hiltzik, The Los Angeles Times; ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ (1924) just reached the public domain, showing the insanity of U.S. copyright law

"The liberation of all these creations, however, should also be an occasion for mourning. They would have been released to the public domain in the early 1960s, if not for an aggressive campaign staged in Washington by big media companies, especially Walt Disney Co., desperate to keep lucrative control of their copyrighted works for as long as possible.

Copyrights prevent consumers or creators from accessing, building on, or even repurposing artistic works without the permission of the copyright holders or the payment of a fee that can be steep. That’s arguably an obstacle to cultural development, and raises the question of why the heirs should exercise so much power and collect such payouts so many decades after the creators are gone."